USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator

[Informative: A computronic hijacking attempt has been thwarted. Eighty-seven modules have gone offline. Physical destruction is suspected. No sensors or detectors can be remotely accessed. A faulty surveillance system outside of MJSR&D facilities indicates an evacuation is ongoing. Cascading failures attributed to over usage are present in a majority of units. Estimated total failure at current rate of consumption.]

“But we aren’t even using them for anything...” Alex muttered, her brow furrowing as she turned to Tia and relayed the information.

A yellow emergency light began pulsing inside the elevator’s cabin, casting shadows on the other passengers’ faces. Their expressions ranged from curiosity to alarm, but they didn’t know about the evacuation unfolding in another section of the station. A flight attendant attempted to soothe several anxious passengers just as the captain’s voice crackled over the intercom.

“Attention all passengers. There is currently an ongoing incident on MIL-1A. Please remain seated while we determine whether we can begin disembarking or will need to return to the ground station.”

A frustrated voice shot back, “But we just docked! That’s a two-day delay!”

“Screw this. We need to figure out what’s going on,” Tia declared, her eyes narrowed with determination.

Alex and Rachel exchanged alarmed glances.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Alex hesitated, her face creased with concern. “They told us to stay put…”

“It’s a misdemeanor and civil penalty to disobey a safety order from a flight officer. They like to throw the book at cadets, too,” Rachel warned.

Tia shot Alex a disbelieving look. “I can’t believe this. Okay, miss-follow-the-rules, stay here. Toss a module onto the station so I don’t fry when you go back down, please.”

Alex blinked as Tia strode toward the airlock. After a moment’s hesitation, she turned to Rachel. “Hey. This is our problem; you don’t really need to get in trouble too.”

Alex hurried to catch up with Tia, falling in step beside her. The flight attendant intercepted them just as they reached the airlock. “Ladies, please sit back down in your seats. No one is allowed—”

Tia cut her off, waving dismissively at the airlock. “It’s pressurized and good to go.”

The red light above the sealed door flashed to a welcoming green, leaving the attendant speechless.

Alex nodded, and Tia pulled the lever. The door rolled into the wall, leaving the attendant stammering about legal consequences. As Alex moved to shut the airlock behind them, Rachel’s voice rang out. “Wait!”

Rushing into the airlock, Rachel cradled three emergency re-breather masks in her arms. “If there is an emergency, we might need these.”

“We can take them. You don’t have to come with us,” Alex insisted.

“I can’t just let you two go off and cause trouble. Someone needs to monitor you.”

“Yeah, right,” Tia scoffed.

Alex hesitated briefly before finally giving Rachel a nod and pulling the airlock shut. “I’m not sure the mask will help if we end up in a vacuum.”

Rachel arched an eyebrow as she pressed one mask into Alex’s hands. “Vacuum? The station’s I-fields are pretty safe. I was more worried about toxic gases.”

Rachel extended a mask to Tia, but the silver-haired girl scoffed, her eyes cold. “You’re the only one who needs it. We can filter out tear-gas and toxins ourselves.”

“Uhh…” Alex stammered, catching a harsh glare from Tia.

“What? You can’t even do that?”

Alex’s right eye twitched. She snatched the extra mask from Rachel and threw it at Tia. “Did someone twist your panties or something, Princess? You don’t have to be such a bitch.”

Tia stared at her before a sly smile crept onto her face. She looped the mask’s strap behind her head, letting it hang from her neck. “Sure thing, boss.”

Feeling the need to justify herself, Rachel interjected, “I’m wearing a skinsuit, otherwise I would have stayed in the cabin.”

Alex gave her a thumbs-up. “Me too. We’re skinsuit friends!”

Tia snorted, while Rachel’s cheeks flushed. “That doesn’t mean what you think it does…”

The airlock beeped, and the exit hatch released a puff of air as the indicator turned green. “Station Atmo reads full standard,” Tia announced, pulling the control mechanism. The door slid open, revealing gangway emergency lights, and flashing red warnings of the lockdown. But it didn’t hinder their access.

As they entered the station, Alex glanced back at Rachel. “Thanks for coming with us.”

Rachel offered a weak smile and nodded. “Hopefully—”

An overhead announcement interrupted her. “A station-wide lockdown is in effect. Duty personnel should report to their emergency stations. All inhabitants should evacuate to emergency bunker locations.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Rachel murmured.

“Where are we going for the computronic modules?” Tia inquired.

“I’m not sure…” Alex admitted, realizing she hadn’t thought it through.

“Did every bit of critical thinking skills drilled into your head disappear the second we left Glisson?” Tia asked.

“Wait. Nameless. Didn’t you say something about MJSR&D?” Alex asked.

A Nameless’s voice erupted from a speaker on the wall so Rachel could listen in as well.

[Informative: Computronics location has been narrowed to a subset of labs inside the Meltisar Joint Services Research and Development Facility located on station.]

Tia nodded. “That’s where they let me work on them. We’re taking a tram.”

“Who… what was that?” Rachel asked, puzzled.

“She has a dissociative identity disorder or something,” Tia remarked casually.

“Hey!” Alex shot her a dirty look. “That’s Nameless. He’s my MainComputer. He does the math.”

[Informative: Avatar’s summarization skills are incredibly inaccurate. This unit provides efficient and effective solutions to Avatar’s frequent and notable lapses of judgment and inability to operate effectively and efficiently.]

“Oh. It’s snarky like Tia, too,” Rachel observed.

“Girl, I’m all Tsun no Dere,” Tia quipped.

“Nameless, do we have a tram schedule for getting to the R&D place?” Alex asked.

[Notice: StationNet offline. All non-essential services have been terminated. However, an incoming vehicle from the MJSR&D line is on approach. A requisition of the tram would be possible.]

“Sounds like a plan. Good job, Alex #2,” Tia said.

Alex bit her lip in annoyance.

[Informative: Mass destruction of computronic modules has ceased. However, units continue to go offline due to exceeding capacity thresholds and self-terminating. At the current rate of devolution, a complete loss of modules is expected within 15 minutes.]

“Ugh. That’s barely even enough time to get there, much less do anything,” Alex said.

[Notice: A transfer of local modules to MIL-1A has been completed. They are currently attached to the hull near elevator platform 36A.]

Alex's brow furrowed. “Wait, how did you get them out of the cargo bay?”

[Informative: Local modules are now equipped with a miniature RCS capable of minor translation.]

“That’s dangerous. Meltisar has a system net that tracks all objects and flights in orbit, and they shoot down anything that isn’t automated by their system.”

[Notice: No risks were taken without Avatar approval. The Meltisar Defense net was taken into consideration during transit. The low-powered gas-thrusters and minimum velocity profile would only register to the station security net, not the system defense net. Heavy stress testing is currently being done on the station security net, and this minor deviation should stay undetected.]

Tia and Rachel had stopped to stare at Alex while she conversed with Nameless. She shot them a frown, feeling self-conscious.

Alex continued, “We won’t just be staying in one spot, like at Glisson. Are we going to have enough range on the station? I still don’t like the idea of you trying to move our modules along the outside of the hull, if they get destroyed, we are dead.”

[Informative: Sub-Core Celestia’s Avatar range is approximately 200km in this environment. Avatar’s current range is approximately 25km.]

Alex glanced at Tia. “Wait, is distance why you were sick on Mt. Hilly?”

The other girl nodded slowly. “The local modules at the tether were right on the edge of my max range.”

[Recommendation: Access ANUF systems and improve tether range.]

[Notice: Sub-Core Celestia can act as a relay tether for Avatar.]

Alex refocused her HUD, bringing the ANUF system into full view for the first time in ages.

|Avatar Nanite Upgrade Framework v1.683|

|Physical |Projective |Utility |

|Points: 583|

Alex’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Wait. I have 583 points? Tia has 8 of the 12, and I didn’t allocate any more to it?”

[Reminder: Avatar ANUF processing efficiency has resulted in a 683% gain in Avatar ANUF allocation.]

[Recommendation: Apply available points immediately.]

Alex scrutinized her old allocations, setup back in 92 Pegasi. She had moved points between her physical stats as needed without even thinking about it, but hadn’t accounted for all her new points or even realized she had free points.

“Okay. Let’s keep tabs on something this important a bit more closely, Nameless. If I forget about it again, remind me.” Alex ordered.

[Notice: This unit will rate-limit reminders, otherwise multiple spam filters might be triggered.]

“Shut up,” Alex retorted.

She shifted her focus to spending her free points; her gaze drawn to the Projective and Utility sections. There were items she realized she had wanted but had forgotten about.

|Projective ANUF|

|Kinetic Projection: Utilizing nanites, user can achieve a cohesive cloud of any shape or size controlled by Avatar mental direction. Requires metallic feed material in an area to create a nanite swarm. Deactivation or unconsciousness renders all nanite swarm units inactive to prevent rampancy. |

|Teleoperative Processing: Utilizing neural connection to ShipCore, Avatar can take remote control of multiple electronic systems including remote pilotable aircraft, drones, ship systems, and terminals. Range limits can be increased with extra ANUF point allocation. Standard range: 1000m |

|Electrostatic Manipulation: Utilizing nanite movement allows Avatar to create static electricity. Nanites can be used to store, transfer, and discharge this energy. Consumes a large amount of Avatar energy storage. Includes safety protocols for protecting Avatar from electric discharges. |

|Nanite Correlation: Allows the Avatar to increasingly combine multiple ANUF active abilities into new ones, altering or enhancing their effect. The power of these modified effects is limited by the level of Nanite Correlation. |

|Utility ANUF|

|Creation Utility: A specialized nanite computer nodule permanently installed in Avatar that allows for on-the-fly programming of nanite constructs. These constructs can either be produced purely out of nanites or fabricated from mundane materials and then deployed. Requires Kinetic and Electrostatic Manipulation and Nanite Correlation Projectives. |

|Energy Density: Converts empty spaces in Avatar’s body to store energy in nanite pockets. Directly increases the amount of nanites Avatar has immediately available, as well as increasing ability to metabolize energy from food and other sources. Dangers include risk of fire, and rapid degeneration during a rampancy situation. |

|Nanite Cohesion Enhancement: Additional nanite processing nodes stored within Avatar’s body increase the time Avatar can prevent rampancy. In emergency disconnection cases, automatically expels nearly all Nanites from the body and shuts the remaining ones into maintenance mode until Avatar regains consciousness or expires. |

|Nanite Connection Protocol: A multi-discipline approach to increasing Avatar range capabilities by deploying miniaturized high-powered transceivers inside Avatar body while improving Direct Neural interface connection protocols to be more bandwidth efficient. Current Range: 25km |

||Physical ||

(REROUTE-INCREASE) (+45) |Strength Enhancement: 50 |

(REROUTE-INCREASE) (+45) |Agility Enhancement: 50 |

(REROUTE-INCREASE) (+30) |Physical Reinforcement: 50 |

(REROUTE-INCREASE) (+45) |Biological Modifications: 50 |

(UPGRADE) (+23) |Nanite Rerouting Alacrity: 33 (permanent) |

||Projective ||

(UPGRADE) (+40) |Kinetic Projection: 50 points (permanent) |

(UPGRADE) (+15) |Electrostatic Manipulation: 25 points (permanent) |

(UPGRADE) (+115) |Nanite Correlation: 125 points (permanent) |

(NEW) |Teleoperative Processing: 50 (permanent) |

||Utility ||

(NEW) |Creation Utility: 50 points (permanent) |

(NEW) |Energy Density: 50 points (permanent) |

(NEW) |Nanite Connection Protocol: 50 points (permanent) |

(UPGRADE) (+25) |Nanite Cohesion Enhancement: 50 points (permanent) |

“All that… from one module?”

[Informative: Diminishing returns on additions to ANUF computronics will occur at a faster rate because of high efficiency levels.]

Alex blinked, taking in the enhanced clarity of the station. Colors seemed more vibrant, and when she focused on a specific detail, her vision zoomed in slightly, without causing dizziness or loss of balance.

“Shit, I’ve been living with my hands tied behind my back,” she mumbled to herself.

She noticed Tia and Rachel staring at her, their eyes locked on her chest. Glancing down, she realized her bosom had expanded noticeably.

Tia burst into laughter before managing to compose herself enough to comment, “Did your MainComputer not add ‘compression’ to your ANUF list?”

“Nameless! What the hell! Show me the list again!” Alex shouted.

[Informative: Nanite compression option would decrease efficiency of Avatar platform.]

A distant screech echoed from the tunnel the incoming tram was supposed to be arriving from.

“What’s that noise?” Rachel asked, concern etched across her face.

USD: One Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A, Navy Neurotrauma and Rehabilitation Center, Resident Annex A5, Room F

Elis sat confined within the sterile walls of the medical annex, acutely aware of the distant hum and beeps of medical equipment mixed with the faint smell of disinfectant permeating the air.

Her frustration mounted as she glared at the nurse standing across from her, fingers furiously tapping at the datapad in her lap. The nurse’s face displayed a mixture of sympathy and impatience, and she sighed heavily as she read Elis’ message.

“I understand, Elis, but I can’t leave my post to take you to the transit hub. Alex will be here soon, anyway. Just be patient.”

Elis shook her head, her long red hair falling into her eyes—a tangible reminder of the time elapsed since her injury. She had avoided cutting it, recalling Alex’s reaction when she had last cut it short. Besides, it wasn’t as if she expected to be fighting anytime soon.

Continuing to type, Elis’ red eyes never wavered from the nurse’s face. “I haven’t seen Alex since I woke up. I need to see her as soon as possible.”

The nurse pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly frazzled. “I’m sorry, Elis. I can’t take you; I need to check on other patients, and there’s no one else available right now.”

Elis gritted her teeth, her thumbs striking the datapad hard as she typed. “Then just give my card access to the tram! Keeping me stuck in the medical center is false imprisonment!”

The nurse sighed. “I already notified the admin about the problem. They should fix it or send someone to talk to you. It’s probably just a permissions glitch since you entered the system without a prior history file.”

Before Elis could respond, an unfamiliar voice interjected. “When is Alex’s shuttle due to arrive?”

Both Elis and the nurse turned to see a tall man in scrubs leaning against the doorframe. With black hair, brown eyes, and a friendly smile, he seemed approachable. The nurse appeared surprised but relieved. “In about twenty minutes, I think.”

The man nodded, glancing at the nurse. “I’m about to go on break, and it’s on my way. I don’t mind giving Elis a hand.”

The nurse smiled gratefully at him. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

As he moved to Elis’ side, she typed a message of gratitude. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate this.”

He introduced himself as Fred. “No problem, Elis,” he replied, gently pushing her wheelchair. “Let’s get you to that transit hub.”

As they left the room, Elis couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was off. But the prospect of seeing Alex sooner had her dismissing the feeling as paranoia, and she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind.